Hydrocarbon fluids such as oil and natural gas are obtained from a subterranean geologic formation, referred to as a reservoir, by drilling a well that penetrates the hydrocarbon-bearing formation. Once a wellbore is drilled, various forms of well completion components may be installed in order to control and enhance the efficiency of producing the various fluids from the reservoir.
Environmental conditions within a well and around tools or other completion components impact the operation of the well. Sensors are used to determine the local environmental conditions within the well. Many sensors rely on transducers that convert pressure to electrical signals. Pressure transducers convert a local environmental pressure to electrical signals and sometimes rely on the piezoelectric effect in operation.
Sensors that utilize the piezoelectric effect have well known limitations due to limitations of the base materials relied upon to produce the piezoelectric effect. Improvement of the characteristic of the base materials may improve sensors produced using the base materials.